
200-hour Yoga Teacher Training

Donna Farhi, Evolving Towards Simplicity, Auckland, April 2026

Experienced Passionate Faculty

Professional Development Trainings

Restorative Yoga Training

Pregnancy Yoga Training

Yoga History and Philosophy

Your Questions Answered

Supporting Our Students
We believe in excellence in Yoga teacher training.
For us and our students, this is far beyond teaching asana.
Contemporary Yoga is a truly holistic programme that offers a transformational experience for students that explores deep into the Yoga tradition and modern movement theory to build skills that support and enhance a life of Yoga practice and Yoga teaching.
The amount of knowledge and understanding, experience and love that has gone into the teacher training is truly epic and has enabled such a deep and rich learning experience.
Caroline Bindon
Diverse, enlightening and empowering. The course exceeded my highest expectations and has equipped me with a toolbox of yoga teachings that I could apply in many circumstances to a wide variety of students.
Cam McLeay
Are you interested in deepening your understanding and experience of Yoga practice?
Not sure if you would like to teach?
Contemporary Yoga Teacher Training is in its 11th year of offering teacher trainings. Many of our students join us to deepen their understanding of all aspects of Yoga not necessarily to teach. Although, often through the process of training, students change their mind and want to teach - sometimes beginning with their family, friends and community.
This year, recognising that some students want to fully immerse themselves in Yoga without learning to teach, we have crafted our 200 hour teacher training into two parts:
Our next 200-hour courses:
Immersion & 200 hour Training 2025
Part 1: 5th - 13th July (break day 9th)
Part 2: 20th - 28th Sept (break day 24th)
January 2026
Approximately 18 days from early January.
Dates to be confirmed by April 2025.
Inquiries and expressions of interest welcome: info@yogateachertraining.nz
Trainings are in two parts:
Part One: Diving into Practice: Yoga immersion - for Yoga lovers: Can be taken as a standalone course.
Part Two: Emerging to Teach: Immersion & teacher training with certification: Part one must be completed prior.
The 200 hour trainings includes up to 40 hours of teacher directed and supported online learning.
Part One - Diving into Practice
Yoga immersion - for Yoga lovers
5th - 13th July 2025
(break day 9th)
Part Two - Emerging to Teach
Immersion & teacher training with certification
(must be taken with part one)
20th - 28th September 2025
(break day 24th)
Course Investment
Part One only: $2,140
Deposit $500
Part One and Two: $3875
Deposit $500
Part One - Diving into Practice
We offer part one as a standalone immersion into the principles and practice of Yoga including history, philosophy, essential anatomy and guidance on developing a personalized self practice. These are all the ingredients to develop and enhance understanding and experience of Yoga as a sustaining and deepening life practice.
Who is this for?
Lovers of Yoga practice in classes and at home and Yoga teachers with curiosity and interest who want study with our passionate, experienced and highly skilled faculty who are eternal students themselves.
Part Two - Emerging To Teach
This is a practical, in-depth immersion into Yoga pedagogy, the ethics of teaching, developing effective and inspiring class plans, in-depth and relevant learning about anatomy and physiology, teaching skills, creating a brand, safe and supportive teaching practicums. The programme includes introductions to somatics, irest - yoga nidra, Restorative Yoga and more.
Who is this for?
Students interested in developing and sustaining a teaching practice.
Students who successfully complete both parts one and two of this training receive a 200 hour Contemporary Yoga Teaching Certificate - recognised by both YogaNZ and Yoga Alliance.
The 200+ hours of Yoga teaching training is truly to an exceptional high quality standard of teaching. The guidance and support during my training with you all has been a once in a lifetime experience.
Vicki Beatty
Everyone should take this course! It is such a unique course and experience that you will not find anywhere else.
Ruru Yang
Contemporary Yoga …

Go Beyond Asana
Understand and experience the very foundation of natural, functional movement.Â
Each posture, transition and philosophy is a process that you’re lovingly and personally guided through to discover ease, stability, clarity and joy.
You’ll take profound life skills away with you, along with a personal resilience to support every part of your life.

Passionate Teachers
It’s our greatest joy to offer you the decades of experience between us.
We honour and encourage the process of curiosity, enquiry and discovery, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. Each of us brings a highly specialist background and a whole lot of soul.
And we can’t wait to meet you!

Be Moved
We’ll take you deep into essential anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and postural analysis, and uncover how our natural developmental movement patterns grow into naturally aligned and easeful asana.
Get ready to go inward.
You’ll rediscover how you were meant to move and breathe in the most balanced and enjoyable way.

Live Well
Feel into the true depth of the Yoga tradition to develop skills that support and enhance your wellness as a human, and as a teacher.
This is a sustainable and nourishing training, designed to put you deeply in touch with inner resources that help you flourish on and off the mat.

Grow Your Yoga
Our vision is for you to leave confident to begin teaching safely and skillfully out in the community with a passionate sense of your own unique offering.
We’re registered with two major yoga communities - Yoga Alliance, and Yoga New Zealand.
Plus our specialised training programmes and mentorships are there to help advance you on your path.

Affordable and Flexible
This comprehensive Yoga training is designed to be within reach for students of all levels.
Choose from three formats of our 200 hour yoga teacher training throughout each year, and modules of your choice within our ongoing and specialised 300 hour training.
Early bird pricing and payment plans are on offer for all programs.
Advanced Yoga Teacher Training, Retreats and Events
What Our Graduates Say
(read more here)
From Our Blog Read All Articles >>
From Our Blog
Read All Articles >>
Graduate Interview: Lucy Tofield
This week’s interview is with Lucy Tofield, a passionate Yogi and Contemporary Yoga graduate. Lucy’s passion for yoga is evident – very recently she organised and facilitated a series of Saturday classes run by recent graduates of Contemporary Yoga at the Centre.
Teacher Interview: Amy Massey
Amy’s passion is Ayurveda which has been guiding her life for more than a decade. Her online module, Ayurveda and Yoga for Women is available from the end of July 2021.
It is my most sincere hope and intention this course may make these deeply nurturing traditions of care more accessible to women, their families, friends and communities, in turn bringing greater well being to women and children.
Graduate Interview: Emma Parsons
Emma Parsons completed her 200-hour teacher training with us in January 2020.
She was invited back to support faculty and students on our 2 x10 day training later that year. Emma teaches in Dargaville and Baylys Beach. She has started her own business called Mind, Body and More.
We sent Emma a series of starter sentences and invited her to complete them …
Graduate Interview: Madeleine Lifsey
We begin a series of Contemporary Yoga Training graduate interviews. Our first graduate interviewee is Madeleine Lifsey.
Madeleine completed her Contemporary Yoga 200 hour teacher training during 2020. She offers body-positive, rainbow-inclusive, inquiry-based children’s yoga over Zoom on Outschool.
An Interview with Amy Matthews and Olive Bieringa, with Karla Brodie
Yoga teacher and trainer, Karla Brodie talks with Body-Mind Centering (BMC) educators Olive Bieringa and Amy Matthews during a BMC somatic movement education programme in Melbourne, Australia, February 2020.
Karla: Thank you for being here. Every morning of training we’re starting the day with a warm up so I have a few warm up questions for you both.
Amy: Okay.
Building Resilience – an interview with Donna Farhi
In November 2020, in preparation for her January 2021 workshop in Auckland, Donna Farhi and I talked about resilience. We share the highlights of this interview below in a few shorter extracts.
What is resilience?
Resilience, self-love and care
Resilience and vulnerability
Resilience tools
Building Resilience with Donna Farhi
Resilience is the capacity to bounce back that is dependent on having invested in one’s fitness over an extended period. Here, world-renown Yoga teacher of teachers shares what resilience means to her, and how we may develop a resilience as we face difficult times.
Teacher Interview: Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal talk about the powerful practice of Restorative Yoga
In this interview, Karla Brodie and Neal Ghoshal share their passion for Restorative Yoga with their fellow teacher and our Contemporary Yoga administrator, Sandy Farquhar.
Neal: In essence, Restorative Yoga is a well-being practice. Of course all Yoga may be about well-being. Restorative Yoga is distinguished by the conscious use of props such as Yoga bolsters, blankets, blocks and more, to support the physical body.
Exploring Yoga Language
A great passion of mine is the evocative use of language to inform Yoga movement and rest practices. A teacher’s use of words has the power to evoke embodied experiences that can be transformational for students.
The use of evocative language in yoga taps into the sensorial body: tasting, touching, feeling, sensing and seeing. Creative language used to innervate movement principles, concepts and anatomy means that a student’s yoga practice emerges from a deep and growing understanding of their bodily world.